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Content Notes for the book in general: consent issues, sexualisation of children, gore, mixed treatment of cross-dressing, suicide, child harm, incest subtext, emotional abuse, ANGST
Thoughts on Chapters 17-24, spoilers for everything.
Hmm I wonder if the Wu in WuYong is the same as the Wu in Jun Wu. Even if it's not it presumably sounds similar. "Jun" just means lord, so it's kind of like...calling himself the Lord of Wu. Nice pseudonym, your highness.
Gosh this is all really adorably shippy. Hua Cheng is very smooth and calm, laughing lightly when Xie Lian asks about difficult subjects like his tattoo. He even flirts a little.
OOH THE FAKE PERSON JUN WU SENT.
He's dressed as a Taoist and gives a convincing story about escaping Ban Yue pass. But Xie Lian and Hua Cheng both notice that he claims to have been running for days, from a desert...yet doesn't ask for water.
When offered water, he reluctantly drinks...and "Xie Lian clearly heard the sounds of plop, plop, plop, as though water was being poured into an empty jar." When he realises he's been caught, the fake man immediately tries to kill Xie Lian! Then he runs, and Hua Cheng calmly skewers him to the door with a thrown chopstick, at which point the water runs out of his stomach, still clear. And then he deflates like a balloon and slowly forms a puddle of skin on the floor.
Xie Lian has seen shells like this before but normally they're like simple AIs, very easy to recognise. This one was like a real person.
FIRST MENTION OF SHI QING XUAN!
When Xie Lian goes to report the shell person, everyone in the heavenly chat room is laughing and having fun grabbing for thrown "merits" (heavenly currency acquired when believers burn incense) from "Lord Wind Master".
When Xie Lian asks about Ban Yue pass, everyone is silent for a moment, and then ignores him. Only Ling Wen actually answers, and only to say that it's a touchy subject. Ah, I remember! Because Pei Su committed war crimes there just before he ascended!
But then Mu Qing and Feng Xin show up to help, aw. (Also it later turns out Shi Qing Xuan was listening and decided to help out too)
...and immediately decide Hua Cheng is evil and start forming DEADLY BALLS OF FIRE.
Hua Cheng, clapping: Wow, how impressive :)
Xie Lian: PLEASE DON'T KILL MY NEW FRIEND
Feng Xin: DON'T BEFRIEND RANDOM SHADY STRANGERS
Hua Cheng: Gosh, are these your servants? *hands Mu Qing a broom*
Hua Cheng you delightful asshole
Xie Lian agrees that Hua Cheng is odd, and if he's not human must be a ridiculously powerful ghost, like a Supreme. "But I'm odd, too. It's not the same as dangerous. There's no reason a Supreme would visit this little shrine. You can test him, but don't bully him. Maybe he really is just a kid."
Hua Cheng says "there have been two people called Demonic Cultivators. One is the demonic cultivator of Ban Yue. The other is a demonic master from the Central Plains, called Grand Tutor Fang Xin."
Xie Lian aka Fang Xin's eyes widen ever so slightly but he doesn't say anything. I wonder if Hua Cheng knows it was him yet.
There's been a few references to "The Central Plains", google got me Zhongyuan, looks like it's basically Ancient China.
Meanwhile sabres seem to be associated with Eurasia, specifically Siberia, which I feel also matches the rest of Hua Cheng's outfit. Why he dresses like someone from fantasy!Russia when he is from fantasy!China I have no idea. Because it looks cool, I guess.
Also: boy, Wikipedia sure does assume I only care about the history of other countries as it relates to Europe. History of the saber according to Wikipedia: developed in Eurasia (1 paragraph), also in other places (1 sentence), introduced from Eurasia to Europe (1 paragraph), used in Europe and the US (rest of the page) :/
(And yes I am going to just switch between US and Australian spelling at random, sorry)
You know what, I'm lazy, here's the full summary:
Ok so afaict the Gobi Desert is north of China, in Mongolia. West of "the Central Plains" is just the western part of modern China. And north west of China is Kazakhstan. I mean this is all made up anyway, but Chinese readers would know that context. Yep, later they refer to this region as "the Northwest".
Hua Cheng has clearly been here before, but gives the impression of having been all over the world (however big that world is)
There's a repeated theme of Hua Cheng hating sun light. Naturally he is not super happy in the desert.
AHHH the introduction of Feng Xin's magic sword that reveals the face of evil! And because it turns out swords names and backstory are important: It's called Hong Jing/Red Mirror. Jung Wu originally owned the sword, and gave it to Xie Lian. He ended up having to ask Feng Xin to pawn it. Clearly, since then, Feng Xin decided to buy it back.
Feng Xin asks Hua Cheng to draw it, and he obliges...
Hua Cheng: Are you messing with me? This sword is broken. *draws out magic sword which has broken to pieces*
Feng Xin: D:
I guess it got fixed at some point in another piece of sword exposition I totally glossed over >.>
The two silhouettes, one dressed in white and one in black, appeared unhurried, and one could even say they looked rather laidback. Yet, clouds billowed beneath their feet, indicating their speed. The one in black was tall and lean, while the one in white was a female official with a longsword on her back and a hossu resting in the crook of her arm. The man in black did not turn around, but the female official in white turned back to give them a smile as they flashed past the small building. The smile was as fleeting as their silhouettes. For no reason, it overflowed with a treacherous and strange feeling.
OH MAN WHO IS THIS I FORGET. I feel like it's Shi Qing Xuan and He Xuan but why would they feel treacherous?? Also am now imagining Shi Qing Xuan as a little short and squishy, though I'm sure that will be contradicted later because everyone in this book is tall, lean and pale to varying extents.
To the North is the territory belonging to the second General of the Pei house. To the West is Quan YiZhen’s territory.
Hua Cheng looks at Xie Lian resting his chin on his hand CONSTANTLY.
A group of merchants in the desert! TianSheng is a feisty young man, Uncle Zheng the old man in charge, A-Zhao a local guide.
They find a Ban Yue tablet about a Central Plains general who kept being demoted. Hua Cheng and Xie Lian translate it. Not only did he try to stop the Ban Yue soldiers from killing the innocent people from his own country, he also stopped his own soldiers from killing the innocents of Ban Yue Kingdom. Every time he acts to stop innocents from being slaughtered, he gets demoted once.
Naturally Xie Lian relates.
Mu Qing: If you act like that you get killed.
Xie Lian: Yes. He did.
Scorpion-Snake: Its skin appeared to be half-translucent, and one could see wispy strands of black mixed within a bright, purplish-red colour. This colour made people associate it with that of internal organs, which rendered feelings of uneasiness. Moreover, the tail of the snake was actually the colour of flesh, and sectioned off as if it had layers of hard shell. In fact, the tail didn’t resemble that of a snake’s, but more of a scorpion’s.
Xie Lian gets stung trying to defend Hua Cheng, and Hua Cheng just holds out his knife for Feng Xin to sterilise before cutting the bite, hands trembling slightly, and sucking the poison.
A thread of blood trickles down Hua Cheng's lips, and he coldly stares at the snake which spontaneously explodes. After that he silently pouts for a while.
all the Ban Yue soldiers were all at least nine foot tall
NINE FEET
The woman wore light, flowy robes that were as white as snow, while a hossu rested in the crook of her arm. As she walked down the street, she glanced left to right with her very bright eyes.
Her expression made it seem as if this place was not a long abandoned ancient city, but a little garden she could visit whenever she liked. Not too far away from her was a young woman dressed in black. With her hands clasped behind her back, she slowly followed behind the woman in white.
The young woman wearing black had facial features that appeared rather cold. Her gaze was not unlike that of an unsheathed dagger, while her long hair was draped over her back. In fact, the woman herself seemed to emit a chilly aura. And although she had been walking behind the woman wearing white, no one would mistake her as an underling.
:D
Hossu: a short staff of wood or bamboo with bundled hair (of a cow, horse, or yak) or hemp wielded by a Zen Buddhist priest.[1] Often described as a "fly whisk" or "fly shooer", the stick is believed to protect the wielder from desire and also works as a way of ridding areas of flies without killing them.
Hmm! Also He Xuan is described as very tall for a woman.
Shi Qing Xuan: Where did those people run off to now? As soon as our attention slipped, they vanished. Do I really have to drag them out one by one to kill them?
He Xuan: You can call your friends out to help you kill them.
Shi Qing Xuan: Ha ha ha! I don’t like asking other people, I only like to ask you. Doesn’t that make you happy?
He Xuan: Being asked by you to come here and do these kinds of things isn’t anything to be happy about.
I...totally forgot that Shi Qing Xuan cheerfully murdered people...
(with He Xuan, even! In a cutely shippy way!)
They're attacked and He Xuan immediately shields Shi Qing Xuan, aww.
Kei Mo:
His complexion was as dark as iron, while his facial features seemed vicious and aggressive. In fact, his face appeared similar to that of a beast’s. Armor covered his stomach and was also draped across his shoulders...all of them carried cudgels that were densely covered in sharp wolf teeth. It created an illusion that a pack of wolves had transformed into people
They're also called savage a lot. I don't know much about the attitudes towards north-western Chinese people/Kazakhs in central China but this feels...unfortunate... *reads up a bit about north-west China and how the various ethnic groups are treated* YEP. UNFORTUNATE.
(I mean it's no more unfortunate than the Savage Brown People in Western Fantasy. But those aren't great either)
A-Zhao got eaten :(
Ban Yue Kingdom had been destroyed by Yong’an Kingdom’s army
I thought it was Pei Su's country which was *checks* YuLi! Also this happened 200 years ago, which was about a hundred years after Xie Lian was the tutor in YongAn...which I thought happened just before YongAn was destroyed??
Just when Xie Lian thought he was once again going to become a human pancake—the kind that won’t get scrapped off of the ground for at least a couple days—like how he did countless times in the past
/o\
And that sadly is the end of the translation that lets me cut and paste. Now I have to TYPE IT MYSELF like some sort of UNDERAPPRECIATED LITERATURE GOD.
Content Notes for the book in general: consent issues, sexualisation of children, gore, mixed treatment of cross-dressing, suicide, child harm, incest subtext, emotional abuse, ANGST
Thoughts on Chapters 17-24, spoilers for everything.
Hmm I wonder if the Wu in WuYong is the same as the Wu in Jun Wu. Even if it's not it presumably sounds similar. "Jun" just means lord, so it's kind of like...calling himself the Lord of Wu. Nice pseudonym, your highness.
Gosh this is all really adorably shippy. Hua Cheng is very smooth and calm, laughing lightly when Xie Lian asks about difficult subjects like his tattoo. He even flirts a little.
OOH THE FAKE PERSON JUN WU SENT.
He's dressed as a Taoist and gives a convincing story about escaping Ban Yue pass. But Xie Lian and Hua Cheng both notice that he claims to have been running for days, from a desert...yet doesn't ask for water.
When offered water, he reluctantly drinks...and "Xie Lian clearly heard the sounds of plop, plop, plop, as though water was being poured into an empty jar." When he realises he's been caught, the fake man immediately tries to kill Xie Lian! Then he runs, and Hua Cheng calmly skewers him to the door with a thrown chopstick, at which point the water runs out of his stomach, still clear. And then he deflates like a balloon and slowly forms a puddle of skin on the floor.
Xie Lian has seen shells like this before but normally they're like simple AIs, very easy to recognise. This one was like a real person.
FIRST MENTION OF SHI QING XUAN!
When Xie Lian goes to report the shell person, everyone in the heavenly chat room is laughing and having fun grabbing for thrown "merits" (heavenly currency acquired when believers burn incense) from "Lord Wind Master".
When Xie Lian asks about Ban Yue pass, everyone is silent for a moment, and then ignores him. Only Ling Wen actually answers, and only to say that it's a touchy subject. Ah, I remember! Because Pei Su committed war crimes there just before he ascended!
But then Mu Qing and Feng Xin show up to help, aw. (Also it later turns out Shi Qing Xuan was listening and decided to help out too)
...and immediately decide Hua Cheng is evil and start forming DEADLY BALLS OF FIRE.
Hua Cheng, clapping: Wow, how impressive :)
Xie Lian: PLEASE DON'T KILL MY NEW FRIEND
Feng Xin: DON'T BEFRIEND RANDOM SHADY STRANGERS
Hua Cheng: Gosh, are these your servants? *hands Mu Qing a broom*
Hua Cheng you delightful asshole
Xie Lian agrees that Hua Cheng is odd, and if he's not human must be a ridiculously powerful ghost, like a Supreme. "But I'm odd, too. It's not the same as dangerous. There's no reason a Supreme would visit this little shrine. You can test him, but don't bully him. Maybe he really is just a kid."
Hua Cheng says "there have been two people called Demonic Cultivators. One is the demonic cultivator of Ban Yue. The other is a demonic master from the Central Plains, called Grand Tutor Fang Xin."
Xie Lian aka Fang Xin's eyes widen ever so slightly but he doesn't say anything. I wonder if Hua Cheng knows it was him yet.
There's been a few references to "The Central Plains", google got me Zhongyuan, looks like it's basically Ancient China.
Meanwhile sabres seem to be associated with Eurasia, specifically Siberia, which I feel also matches the rest of Hua Cheng's outfit. Why he dresses like someone from fantasy!Russia when he is from fantasy!China I have no idea. Because it looks cool, I guess.
Also: boy, Wikipedia sure does assume I only care about the history of other countries as it relates to Europe. History of the saber according to Wikipedia: developed in Eurasia (1 paragraph), also in other places (1 sentence), introduced from Eurasia to Europe (1 paragraph), used in Europe and the US (rest of the page) :/
(And yes I am going to just switch between US and Australian spelling at random, sorry)
You know what, I'm lazy, here's the full summary:
As it turned out, Ban Yue’s people were extraordinarily strong and partial to violence and war, and they wielded great influence. They captured an important checkpoint in the Western Regions of the Central Plains, causing the two nations to frequently intrude on each other’s borders, unceasing in conflicts. Battles big and small erupted frequently. Their Grand Tutor was skilled with sorcery, and the troops had the utmost faith towards them, willing to follow them even unto death.
However, two hundred years ago, the king of the Central Plains finally organized an army to attack, utterly flattening the Ban Yue Kingdom.
Although the Ban Yue Kingdom was extinguished, the Grand Tutor and troops’ hatred and resentment did not disperse. They remained to haunt the place. Ban Yue Kingdom used to be a state full of greenery, but after it turned into Ban Yue Pass, it seemed as if the evil energy had corroded the once lush scenery and it was slowly consumed by the surrounding Gobi Desert. It was said that at night, people could still see the lofty silhouettes of the Ban Yue soldiers, grasping a wolf tooth club, as they roamed the Gobi in search of prey from afar.
Originally, this place had tens of thousands of inhabitants. However, all of them gradually became unable to survive, so they migrated away and left. At the same time, the legend, ‘every time someone crosses this Pass, over fifty percent would go missing’ began spreading out. As long as they were people from the Central Plains passing this place, they all had to leave behind half as their illegal ‘toll’——human lives!
Ok so afaict the Gobi Desert is north of China, in Mongolia. West of "the Central Plains" is just the western part of modern China. And north west of China is Kazakhstan. I mean this is all made up anyway, but Chinese readers would know that context. Yep, later they refer to this region as "the Northwest".
Hua Cheng has clearly been here before, but gives the impression of having been all over the world (however big that world is)
There's a repeated theme of Hua Cheng hating sun light. Naturally he is not super happy in the desert.
AHHH the introduction of Feng Xin's magic sword that reveals the face of evil! And because it turns out swords names and backstory are important: It's called Hong Jing/Red Mirror. Jung Wu originally owned the sword, and gave it to Xie Lian. He ended up having to ask Feng Xin to pawn it. Clearly, since then, Feng Xin decided to buy it back.
Feng Xin asks Hua Cheng to draw it, and he obliges...
Hua Cheng: Are you messing with me? This sword is broken. *draws out magic sword which has broken to pieces*
Feng Xin: D:
I guess it got fixed at some point in another piece of sword exposition I totally glossed over >.>
The two silhouettes, one dressed in white and one in black, appeared unhurried, and one could even say they looked rather laidback. Yet, clouds billowed beneath their feet, indicating their speed. The one in black was tall and lean, while the one in white was a female official with a longsword on her back and a hossu resting in the crook of her arm. The man in black did not turn around, but the female official in white turned back to give them a smile as they flashed past the small building. The smile was as fleeting as their silhouettes. For no reason, it overflowed with a treacherous and strange feeling.
OH MAN WHO IS THIS I FORGET. I feel like it's Shi Qing Xuan and He Xuan but why would they feel treacherous?? Also am now imagining Shi Qing Xuan as a little short and squishy, though I'm sure that will be contradicted later because everyone in this book is tall, lean and pale to varying extents.
To the North is the territory belonging to the second General of the Pei house. To the West is Quan YiZhen’s territory.
Hua Cheng looks at Xie Lian resting his chin on his hand CONSTANTLY.
A group of merchants in the desert! TianSheng is a feisty young man, Uncle Zheng the old man in charge, A-Zhao a local guide.
They find a Ban Yue tablet about a Central Plains general who kept being demoted. Hua Cheng and Xie Lian translate it. Not only did he try to stop the Ban Yue soldiers from killing the innocent people from his own country, he also stopped his own soldiers from killing the innocents of Ban Yue Kingdom. Every time he acts to stop innocents from being slaughtered, he gets demoted once.
Naturally Xie Lian relates.
Mu Qing: If you act like that you get killed.
Xie Lian: Yes. He did.
Scorpion-Snake: Its skin appeared to be half-translucent, and one could see wispy strands of black mixed within a bright, purplish-red colour. This colour made people associate it with that of internal organs, which rendered feelings of uneasiness. Moreover, the tail of the snake was actually the colour of flesh, and sectioned off as if it had layers of hard shell. In fact, the tail didn’t resemble that of a snake’s, but more of a scorpion’s.
Xie Lian gets stung trying to defend Hua Cheng, and Hua Cheng just holds out his knife for Feng Xin to sterilise before cutting the bite, hands trembling slightly, and sucking the poison.
A thread of blood trickles down Hua Cheng's lips, and he coldly stares at the snake which spontaneously explodes. After that he silently pouts for a while.
all the Ban Yue soldiers were all at least nine foot tall
NINE FEET
The woman wore light, flowy robes that were as white as snow, while a hossu rested in the crook of her arm. As she walked down the street, she glanced left to right with her very bright eyes.
Her expression made it seem as if this place was not a long abandoned ancient city, but a little garden she could visit whenever she liked. Not too far away from her was a young woman dressed in black. With her hands clasped behind her back, she slowly followed behind the woman in white.
The young woman wearing black had facial features that appeared rather cold. Her gaze was not unlike that of an unsheathed dagger, while her long hair was draped over her back. In fact, the woman herself seemed to emit a chilly aura. And although she had been walking behind the woman wearing white, no one would mistake her as an underling.
:D
Hossu: a short staff of wood or bamboo with bundled hair (of a cow, horse, or yak) or hemp wielded by a Zen Buddhist priest.[1] Often described as a "fly whisk" or "fly shooer", the stick is believed to protect the wielder from desire and also works as a way of ridding areas of flies without killing them.
Hmm! Also He Xuan is described as very tall for a woman.
Shi Qing Xuan: Where did those people run off to now? As soon as our attention slipped, they vanished. Do I really have to drag them out one by one to kill them?
He Xuan: You can call your friends out to help you kill them.
Shi Qing Xuan: Ha ha ha! I don’t like asking other people, I only like to ask you. Doesn’t that make you happy?
He Xuan: Being asked by you to come here and do these kinds of things isn’t anything to be happy about.
I...totally forgot that Shi Qing Xuan cheerfully murdered people...
(with He Xuan, even! In a cutely shippy way!)
They're attacked and He Xuan immediately shields Shi Qing Xuan, aww.
Kei Mo:
His complexion was as dark as iron, while his facial features seemed vicious and aggressive. In fact, his face appeared similar to that of a beast’s. Armor covered his stomach and was also draped across his shoulders...all of them carried cudgels that were densely covered in sharp wolf teeth. It created an illusion that a pack of wolves had transformed into people
They're also called savage a lot. I don't know much about the attitudes towards north-western Chinese people/Kazakhs in central China but this feels...unfortunate... *reads up a bit about north-west China and how the various ethnic groups are treated* YEP. UNFORTUNATE.
(I mean it's no more unfortunate than the Savage Brown People in Western Fantasy. But those aren't great either)
A-Zhao got eaten :(
Ban Yue Kingdom had been destroyed by Yong’an Kingdom’s army
I thought it was Pei Su's country which was *checks* YuLi! Also this happened 200 years ago, which was about a hundred years after Xie Lian was the tutor in YongAn...which I thought happened just before YongAn was destroyed??
Just when Xie Lian thought he was once again going to become a human pancake—the kind that won’t get scrapped off of the ground for at least a couple days—like how he did countless times in the past
/o\
And that sadly is the end of the translation that lets me cut and paste. Now I have to TYPE IT MYSELF like some sort of UNDERAPPRECIATED LITERATURE GOD.
